


Identity [REDACTED]

by TheDisneyOutsider



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, False Identity, Hurt Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Loss of Identity, Medical Inaccuracies, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Protective Peter Parker, Some Humor, Temporary Amnesia, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has Issues, Uncle James "Rhodey" Rhodes, probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26374168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDisneyOutsider/pseuds/TheDisneyOutsider
Summary: Dissociative fugue is one or more episodes of amnesia in which an individual cannot recall some or all of his or her past. Either the loss of one's identity or the formation of a new identity may occur with sudden, unexpected, purposeful travel away from home.ORWhen Tony goes missing, Peter and Rhodey team up to find him.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 16
Kudos: 71
Collections: The Friendly Neighborhood Exchange





	Identity [REDACTED]

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sandyk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/gifts).



> Written for The Friendly Neighborhood Exchange and based on the three prompts: Kidnapped Tony, Peter and Rhodey Team up to Save Tony, and Amnesia.
> 
> The kidnapping is only mentioned and touched on very briefly. Also, I don't know much about amnesia so I relied heavily on Google. Please ignore any inaccuracies you may come across!
> 
> Enjoy!

“Are you sure this is the right place? This is the most squeaky clean town in New York. Why would Tony be here?”

“These are the coordinates both Karen and FRIDAY gave us,” Peter shrugged, looking past Rhodey at the quiet street.

Tony had gone missing three days ago.

The first sign that something was up was when Peter had been dismissed from school and his guardian wasn’t waiting for him at pick-up like usual. Peter had gotten worried, of course, but he had shaken it off as an out of character slip of the mind. Tony must have just gotten caught up in a meeting or something and forgotten to message Peter.

It wasn’t until he still hadn’t heard from the man by supper time that he began to have a full-on freak-out. At that point, he had decided to call his Uncle Rhodey.

Rhodey had come over straight away, finding a very distraught teenager when he arrived. He tried his best to console the poor boy, but Peter could tell by the deep lines on his forehead and the nervous twitch of his hands that he was worried too.

Instead of lingering on these feelings too long and wasting precious time, the boys set to work.

It took several long hours, the evening glow replaced by the morning dawn, but finally, FRIDAY had managed to find video surveillance of the initial kidnapping and using that footage to follow the car, she had found more, much grainier footage of a fight, in which Tony had miraculously escaped.

Peter nearly cheered when he witnessed Tony break free, knocking his kidnappers out, and stumbling off towards... somewhere. That was the part that was still stumping them. If Tony had gotten away, why wasn’t he back? Both Rhodey and Peter knew that there was no way the man they knew so well would leave them to worry that long, not without some form of communication. Not unless, of course, he had been hurt, and didn’t make it very far. He had looked pretty banged up in the video, taking several hits to the head during the fight. After all, without the suit, Tony was only human, albeit a very skilled human, but that didn’t make him invincible.

That thought had rekindled Peter’s anxiety, even with Rhodey reassuring him over and over that they only had speculations to go off of at this point.

For two more days, the pair worked round-the-clock trying to find another trace of Tony. Neither of them had gotten more than two restless hours of sleep in a row, no matter how much Rhodey kept insisting that Peter needed to rest. The bags under his eyes were starting to grow deep and dark and Rhodey was pretty sure when they found Tony, his best friend would kill him for letting his kid get so unwell while under his care. The man had told Peter that, but of course, the kid didn’t listen.

It wasn’t until the early morning of day three that Friday had risen them from a fitful slumber with the news that she had found Tony once again.

Hope reawakened once more, they stood in front of the screen as the AI pulled up the fresh surveillance footage, this time of a quiet suburban street, where a very healthy looking Tony was entering one of the many identical houses with a grocery bag in hand and what seemed like not a care in the world.

Peter was happy to note that the cuts that he had suffered during the attack looked to be healing nicely and he didn’t look like he was being held anywhere against his will. However, these reliefs seemed to only cause him more worry, because if Tony was fine, then why wasn’t he coming home to them? Was he trying to hide? The way he walked so freely, practically a skip in his step, it didn’t really look like he was trying not to be seen. Yet still, no contact had been made with, well, anyone.

That had been what drove the boys an hour later to the very street FRIDAY had shown them.

“So what exactly should we do? Just waltz up there and knock on the door?” Peter asked when Rhodey pulled up in front of the seemingly normal house.

“We looked through the footage of the last two days,” Rhodey shrugged, “Tony’s been coming and going as he pleases and nobody else seems to be in the house. Nothing about it looks dangerous.”

“So we knock?”

“We knock,” Rhodey confirmed, knowing that he had his repulsors at the ready if need be.

With a large breath, Peter opened his door and got out of the car. Rhodey followed suit and together they walked up to the door.

Peter raised his fist, pausing briefly before knocking short and quick.

And then they waited.

And waited.

And just when they thought there would be no response, they heard a frazzled voice from the other side. A very familiar frazzled voice.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!”

Peter and Rhodey gave each other confused looks. Tony sounded completely normal. Something definitely wasn’t adding up.

Finally, the door was pulled open, and the pair were met by Tony Stark, wearing an apron and dusted lightly in flour.

“Hello, can I help you?” He offered them a friendly smile.

“Tony?” Peter spoke up first, “What are you doing?”

“I’m sorry? I don’t know a Tony,” the man furrowed his brow, setting the oven mitt he had been holding on a table next to the door, “Are you looking for the landlord? I don’t know him all that well yet, I only just moved in a few days ago, but I have his number if you need to speak with him.”

“Tones, what are you talking about?” Rhodey questioned, completely puzzled by his friend’s words.

“Why haven’t you contacted us! We’ve been worried about you!” Peter added, feeling a touch of anger now that he saw the man living, breathing, and well.

“I’m sorry fellas, I’m lost. Who are you?”

Peter felt his blood run cold. He knew it was most definitely their Tony. Peter was able to distinguish the man anywhere. From the freckle just below his earlobe, to the curve of his eyebrows and faint lines of age that were beginning on his forehead and either side of his eyes. It was HIS Tony. But why was his Tony acting like he had no clue who Peter or Rhodey were?

“Alright, Tony, stop it, you’re scaring the kid,” Rhodey spoke slow and calmly, squeezing Peter’s wrist gently.

Tony just looked more confused, “Look, I don’t know what game you two are playing, but I don’t know a Tony. I think you’ve got the wrong house.”

“What—” Peter started, but was cut off by Rhodey’s hand on his chest, stopping him.

“We’re sorry,” Rhodey attempted an apologetic look, “Can you tell us your name so we can fix our database?”

“I—” Tony began, sputtering for a moment as if he was thinking hard, “It doesn’t matter what my name is,” he finally settled on, “I’m not the person you’re looking for.”

“Where do you work?” Rhodey pressed on.

Again, Tony paused a moment in thought. Then another moment. He finally huffed, scowling slightly, “I just moved here from... a different place, I don’t have a job yet, of course! Now I would appreciate it if the two of you left! I’m very busy and my cookies are going to burn.”

He closed the door before either his best friend or his kid could get another word in.

“ _ What _ was that?” Peter breathed out shakily, still staring at the door where Tony had stood moments ago.

Rhodey shook his head, doing the same thing, “My guess is amnesia of some sort. But, I’ve never seen anyone with amnesia like this before.”

“What are we going to do now? Rhodey, he thinks he’s an entirely different person!”

“I know, kid,” Rhodey glanced at the teen, squeezing the back of his neck, “Come on, let’s get back to the car. I’m going to call Doctor Cho and see if she can help us.”

* * *

“It sounds like he’s developed what’s called ‘Fugue Dissociative Amnesia’,” Cho spoke to the boys over the speakerphone. They were still sitting in Rhodey’s car a few streets away in a grocery store parking lot. “It’s rare, but basically, he’s experienced such an intense trauma that not only has he lost his memories, but he’s adopted an entirely new identity.”

“Do you really think that could have happened to him because of the kidnapping?” Peter bit his bottom lip nervously, “I mean he escaped all by himself! They didn’t even get him into the building.”

Cho sighed, “I’ve been working for Mr. Stark for a long time. If I were to guess I’d say it probably has something to do with his PTSD from Afghanistan. I think when they kidnapped him he flashed back to that point and panicked. Now his brain is attempting to escape from the distress.”

“What do we do, Cho? We can’t just leave him, the man has no clue what he’s doing, but somehow he rented a house and is baking cookies like he doesn’t have a care in the world,” Rhodey reiterated.

“From what I’ve read, most times the memories do come back in these cases, and they come back all at once. I’d suggest your best bet is to find a way to get him home. The more familiar things he sees, the more likely he is to remember.”

“Get him home with no recollection of who we are or that there’s anything wrong with him. Perfect. Easy peasy...” Rhodey muttered sarcastically, but then he sighed, Cho was only trying to help and she had helped tremendously, “Sorry, we’ll figure it out. Thanks for your help, Cho. We appreciate it.”

After bidding the doctor farewell, Peter turned to Rhodey, “So how exactly do you plan on getting him to come with us? We can just kidnap him again, what if it makes him worse, and there’s no way he’s just going to come with us because we asked him to. He’s already suspicious.”

Rhodey nodded, “I know, Pete, but I think I have an idea.”

* * *

“What if this doesn’t work?” Peter wondered nervously, picking up the burger Rhodey had bought him but not feeling like he had any sort of appetite to eat it.

Rhodey shrugged nonchalantly, but Peter had noticed his heartbeat quicken in the last few minutes, “Then we figure out a new plan. The thing about the two of us, Peter, is that we might be the only ones besides Pepper who know Tony better than Tony.”

“I’m pretty sure everyone knows Tony better than Tony right now, Uncle Rhodey,” Peter smirked, but the humour just wasn’t there.

“Well, I also happen to know that if one of us was missing, or wasn’t ourselves, Tony would move mountains to get us back. I promise we’re not going to give up on him Peter. This doesn’t work? We figure out a new way.”

Peter nodded, satisfied for now. He believed Rhodey. There was no better team to get Tony back.

Wordlessly, Rhodey picked up the phone and dialed the number, praying that the landlord had given them the right one. He sighed in relief when he heard the familiar voice pick up on the other end.

“Hello,” Rhodey began in his most official voice, “I’m James Rhodes and I’m calling about a job offer we have here at Stark Industries. It seems you put your name in months ago, and turns out the boss was impressed with your resume.”

Since Tony didn’t seem to have any real answers to how his new life came about, or who his new identity was even, Peter and Rhodey were hoping that the man would just accept this information as facts that he must have just forgotten. When Tony answered, “He was?” they threw a triumphant grin at each other.

“He really was,” Rhodey confirmed with a nod that the man couldn’t see, “So impressed in fact that he was hoping you could come over to the tower and meet with him personally.”

There was a pause on the other end as if Tony was once again having trouble processing the facts that were no longer there, “And, who will I be meeting again?” he finally asked in clear confusion.

“Tony Stark,” Rhodey replied, unable to school the question in his voice. Technically, he  _ would _ be meeting Tony, if the whole plan worked and his memories did in fact come back.

“ _ The  _ Tony Stark?” Tony replied, “No shit!”

“Um... yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Rhodey stumbled briefly, his best friend’s reaction throwing him off his game. In all honesty, neither Peter nor Rhodey had been quite sure how Tony was going to respond to using himself as an excuse. Thankfully, his new identity seemed to at least _ know _ about his old one. 

“You know, that’s so weird though. Someone was just at my house earlier asking for a Tony. That didn’t have anything to do with this, did it?” 

“Uh, not that I’m aware of Sir,” Rhodey waved a hand for Peter’s help but the younger boy only shrugged.

“Huh, strange coincidence I guess,” Tony mused.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Rhodey agreed, “So, are you able to meet? Say three o’clock this afternoon? Stark Tower?”

“I’ll be there,” Tony confirmed with vigor.

Rhodey hung up and Peter let out a  _ whoop! _ of enthusiasm, “That was easier than I thought!”

Rhodey nodded, “I mean, he was always easy to mess with when he was drunk in college. I guess this is sort of similar?”

Peter sighed, throwing himself against the back of the car seat, “God I hope this works, I miss Tony.”

The space between them became somber.

Rhodey cleared his throat and whispered softly, patting the teen’s knee, “Me too, Kid.”

* * *

He pulled a tie around his neck, tightening it easily and giving himself one last look in the mirror. He couldn’t believe that when he suddenly needed a job, an offer dropped right into his lap.  _ Tony Stark _ was impressed with him. That was something. He’d seen the man in a magazine at the checkout counter that morning.  _ Billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, Missing? _ No, he was pretty sure he was remembering that last part wrong. Tony Stark was most definitely not missing because he wanted to see him for a meeting that very afternoon.

The fact that a billionaire was wanting to see  _ him  _ was crazy. If he got the job it could transform his life.

Though, a part of him didn’t want anything to change. He liked his little rented house. How he played Solitaire in front of the TV while watching Ellen at four in the afternoon, baking cookies for his elderly neighbour down the street. Yet, he still felt like something was missing from his life, and he’d started feeling that way ever since those two men had come to his door that morning, mistaking him for someone else. He didn’t know the men, didn’t understand why they were there, but he felt the strongest urge to go with them when they left. As if they were going somewhere that he would have liked to go as well. The feeling was strange.

It was just that, though, a feeling. People have thousands of different feelings every single day and this was no different.

He smiled to himself in the mirror once more, grabbed the car keys, and left the cozy little life he didn’t realize he had built.

* * *

“Okay, FRIDAY just reported that he left the house and seems to be headed in this direction according to the traffic cams. Now, remember what Dr. Cho said—”

“No forcing memories, he has to remember them on his own,” Peter finished, pacing back and forth across the workshop.

“Exactly,” Rhodey confirmed, “You doing alright, Pete?”

“Yeah... I’m just nervous. What if his memories don’t come back?” Peter’s voice hitched.

Rhodey’s heart nearly broke looking at the kid’s face, “Cho said it is highly unlikely that they would disappear forever with this kind of amnesia, bud. We just have to have patience.”

Before they could continue their conversation, Pepper entered swiftly through the door, “Are we all ready for this?”

It had taken her longer than she would have liked trying to get back from Dubai when she heard of Tony’s disappearance. She had left a meeting in a panic, saying goodbye to nobody before racing to the airport to get on the jet. Unfortunately, a thick fog had stopped the plane from leaving and she had spent a very restless night 6800 miles away with no way to help.

Relief washed over her when her feet finally touched the ground of New York City nearly thirty-six hours later and she was informed that Peter and Rhodey had found Tony. With nothing but pure exhaustion keeping her going, she had raced over to Stark tower, ready to help get her fiance back.

“He’s on his way,” Rhodey confirmed, “You’ll meet him downstairs. We’re hoping the sight of you will get his memories to click since it didn’t work when he saw either of us, but if it doesn’t you need to bring him up here to the lab. If anything’s going to jump-start his memories, this place will. He spends 99.9% of his time here.”

“What do I do?” Peter asked, eager to help.

“I think the best thing to do is make everything as normal as possible for him,” Rhodey mused, “Work at your station, tinker with the Spider suit, try asking him questions that you’d usually ask when you’re working here together.”

“Got it!” Peter smiled, grabbing his suit out of his backpack to get himself set up.

_ Mr. Stark has arrived and is entering through the front entrance.  _ Friday’s voice came over the speakers.

“Showtime everyone.”

* * *

When he entered the building he was greeted by the most gorgeous face he was sure he’d ever seen in his life.

“Good afternoon, I’m Pepper Potts,” she introduced cheerfully, “I’ve been asked to take you up to Mr. Stark’s private labs to get the interview started. Do you have any questions?”

“You’re beautiful,” He couldn’t help but blurt out, “I’m sorry, that’s inappropriate, it’s just, wow.”

Pepper hid a smile, there was her Tony, “Thank you, that’s very kind. Have you ever visited Stark Tower before?” she continued, motioning him to follow behind her.

“No,” he breathed out a laugh, “I don’t think so at least. Something does seem familiar about the place, probably saw it on the news.”

“That makes sense,” Pepper agreed, escorting him into the elevator. “Well, we’re all very excited to have you here. We’ve heard amazing things about your work.”

“Thank you,” he replied, trying to remember exactly what he had sent in with his application.

_ Good afternoon Miss Potts. Where can I take you?  _ A voice asked from the speaker.

“The bosses private lab Fri,” she replied smoothly. “That’s FRIDAY, Mr. Stark’s AI system. Have you heard of her?”

He stared at the speaker where the voice had just come from, “I... think I have?”

Pepper only nodded and soon the elevator dinged and the doors flew open.

“So, this is the private labs,” Pepper indicated, stepping out of the elevator.

A robot quickly sprang to life at the sight of them, rolling over and chirping endlessly at his side.

“Oh, that’s Dum-E,” Pepper smiled, “I know, boy, it’s very exciting, give him some space okay?” she spoke to the robot like a dog.

His eyes fixed on Dum-E for a long time, endeared by him, “Well aren’t you impressive. I wouldn’t mind having one of you around the house. You’re just what I need to make things more lively.”

Suddenly, he saw someone else out of the corner of his eye, distracting him from his new friend, “Hey! You’re that boy that came to my door this morning!” he exclaimed, wanting to feel uneasy by the boy’s presence, but unable to.

The boy turned around, “Oh, um, hi.”

“We’re sorry about that,” another man, the other one that had been at his door that very morning said as he entered from a door to the left. “The boss really wanted to talk to you, but we didn’t have a number. We didn’t mean to freak you out.”

He eyed the man suspiciously, “I asked the man I spoke to on the phone about your visit and he said he didn’t know about it.”

The other man nodded, “Again, we’re truly sorry for the confusion, the people who deal with the phone calls aren’t always completely up-to-date with information.”

“You should figure that out,” he said honestly, “It makes your company seem a little fishy.”

“Of course, I’ll be sure to give your feedback to the correct people. For now though,” the man continued, “Mr. Stark’s going to be a while, but he wanted to see what you could do. We thought you could sit right here at this desk and take a look at these blueprints, feel out the station, mess with the holographic projections, just show us what you know.”

“Sure,” he agreed confidently. In actuality, it sounded like a daunting task, but for some reason, his hands were itching to touch the tools and metals in front of him, almost as if they had done so before.

“We’ll be around if you have any questions.”

As the man retreated, he sat down, gingerly swiping the holographic in front of him.

He picked up the first tool tentatively, weighing it in his hand. Slightly unsure, he grabbed the wires sitting next to his arm and started connecting them to the circuit board in front of him, his hands taking over where his brain was lagging.

“So,” the boy from earlier appeared in front of him, smiling wide and friendly. He was a cute kid. “What do you like better, hamburgers or shawarma?”

“Uh, sorry?” he replied in confusion at the out of the blue question.

“Oh, I’m just wondering what you prefer to eat? We’re going to be ordering dinner later and Mr. Stark always likes to feed his guests.”

He nodded his understanding, “Um, I think I’m more of a burger fan.”

The boy nodded enthusiastically, “It’s comfort food, right?”

He smiled at the kid, feeling an instant connection to him somehow, “Yeah, it is.”

“Let me know if you need water or anything,” the boy continued, obviously not ready to end the conversation, “We’re allowed to drink in here as long as we keep it away from any of the heavy machinery and don’t make anything smoke by spilling it. I’ve only done that twice, but I’m telling you, neither time was my fault! You see the first time Mr. Stark had his music blaring super loud and I didn’t realize he was right behind me so I jumped. You wouldn’t understand right now, but that doesn’t usually happen with me. I never get snuck up on, but somehow Mr. Stark is an exception to that rule, probably because my subconscious knows he’s safe…”

“You’re really fond of Stark, huh?” he interrupted the boy, noticing how his chatter seemed to continuously circle back to the billionaire.

“I care about him a lot,” the boy agreed almost somberly, “And I know he’d do anything for me, too.”

“That’s great, kid. You wouldn’t think someone of his stature would allow a high school kid to hang around so much,” a thought struck him suddenly, “Wait, you’re not his son, are you?”

The boy laughed, “No! Mr. Stark doesn’t have any kids.”

“Oh,” he nodded, “It’s just the way you talk about him makes it sound like you two are father and son or something.”

The boy shrugged, “I mean, sometimes it’s nice to imagine we are.” He hopped off the stool he had perched himself on and sighed, “Anyway, I should let you get back to work.”

The boy retreated to the other end of the workshop and once alone again, he discovered that he actually sort of missed the constant chatter in his ear.

Sighing he picked up the wiring once more and continued to curiously fiddle around with it.

* * *

Tony had been at the project for hours, switching out wires, experimenting with the density of the metal he was using, and recording the data into the large holographic in front of him. He was at peace, less stressed than he was sure he’d felt in days.

He was moving automatically, in a complete trance and satisfied with the amount of work he was getting done. Only when he reached for the socket wrench in the place he knew it always was and he realized it was missing did he pause. Sighing deeply at being thrown out of his concentration, he yelled across the room, “Hey Pete, did you steal my socket wrench again!? I bought you your own so you would stop doing that, kid!”

The entire room went silent. Even the buzzing and beeping from the machines seemed to stop abruptly.

Then a tiny squeak and Peter’s head shot up out of his own work, “Wait, what? Did you just—oh my God!”

In a blink, he was holding an armful of Peter who was now sobbing so hard he was dampening Tony’s shirt, “You’re back!”

“I—” Tony started and then paused, looking from the workstation to Peter and Rhodey and Pepper who were now surrounding him. Suddenly everything about the past few days rushed through his mind like a bad dream, “I guess I am... what the hell was I doing?”

“We were hoping you could tell us, man,” Rhodey spoke up from beside him, looking a bit misty-eyed himself.

“I’m not sure, I mean I remember getting grabbed, and I fought them and ran off, then... what was I  _ thinking?” _

“Cho called it  _ Fugue Dissociative Amnesia,”  _ Pepper informed, leaning down as to not disturb the kid still planted firmly in her fiance’s arms and pressing an impactful kiss to Tony’s lips. “Your PTSD hit so hard you decided to take on a completely new identity. Which by the way, you are  _ never _ allowed to do to us again.”

“I don’t intend to,” Tony shook his head in disbelief at how his brain managed to mess him up so badly. “How could I ever forget you guys?”

“Pretty easily it seems,” Rhodey joked, receiving a playful push from his friend.

Peter sat up, tears subsided though his face was still blotchy and wet.

“Rhodey, why does my kid look like he’s mere seconds from passing out? Did you make sure he got _ any _ sleep at all the past few days?”

Rhodey rolled his eyes, “I told you he’d blame me, kid! Sorry Tones, your kid is more stubborn than you, I tried my best.”

“Just never go away again and this won’t be an issue,” Peter ordered seriously and Tony squeezed him tighter.

“Don’t worry, I’m staying right here,” he smiled at the three people he loved the very most in the world. The three he was fully aware would do anything in their power to save him. “I don’t know why my brain thought there could be any better life for me than the one with the three of you in it, but I plan to have a very serious conversation with it.”

Peter smiled, burying his head back into Tony’s chest and Rhodey gave the man a one-armed hug.

“Now tell us, how did you manage to rent a house with no knowledge of who you are or any identification on you?”

Tony shot them his most award-winning smile and shrugged, “Well, I am Tony Stark after all.”

And Rhodey, Peter, and Pepper laughed, thinking those might have been the best words they’ve ever heard.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Please let me know what you think in the comments as these prompts were not something I would normally write and it was quite a step out of my comfort zone to do so! :)


End file.
